Breached Poplar Bluff levee failed inspection after 2008 flood

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- The damaged agricultural levee protecting Poplar Bluff failed a federal inspection after a 2008 flood, an official with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Tuesday.

Tony Hill, chief of the emergency management office for the corps' office in Little Rock, Ark., said the levee protecting farmland and homes near Poplar Bluff from the rain-swollen Black River received an "unacceptable" rating -- the lowest of three rankings the corps gives to levees. The levee was breached and overtopped in the 2008 flooding, Hill said.

Hill said the private district that operates the levee was unable to make repairs. Because the problems weren't adequately addressed, the levee no longer qualifies for a corps program that provides money for flood-related repairs.

Water from the Black River is flowing over the top of the levee, which was breached in one spot Monday. The flood danger has displaced about 1,000 people and put homes in and around the town in danger.

Hill said an "unacceptable" rating can be caused by a number of factors, but the reasons for the rating weren't immediately known Tuesday.

"It's very common throughout the United States for levees to be rated unacceptable," Hill said. "It's a systemic problem we have with the way levees are managed, or actually not managed, in the United States. What has happened is these levee authorities just do not have the funds to keep the maintenance up to speed on those levees. They may have the money to mow it every other year or a couple of times a year, but to do any major repairs that entail moving dirt or major contract resources, they just don't have the money to do that."

He said part of the problem is many of the levees are more than 50 years old.

A 2009 corps report shows three other levees in the same county also failed inspections.

Calls to Reorganized Butler Co. No. 7, which operates the breached levee, weren't immediately returned.

Dennis Whitlow, the president of another levee district in the county, agreed that finances are the problem. His Ring Levee Drainage District operates an aging agricultural levee that is between two drainage ditches near the Black River. It has weak spots and areas that are covered with trees and brush.

"We are a real, real small district and we just don't have the money to do it," Whitlow said of fixing the problems. Water is backed up to a shed on his property but he said that's not uncommon and overall the levee is faring well amid the flooding.

Tom Waters, chairman of the Missouri Levee and Drainage District Association, said some levee districts have been having problems complying with inspections because the corps has made them more stringent.

"This may be the case where to meet the new standards they may not have been able to do it," Waters said. "Levee districts collect a tax, which is pretty much used up with mowing. If there is a pipe that needs fixed, you can be talking about several hundred thousand dollars."

He also said that being part of the Corps' program requires participants to go through a federal contracting process to receive money. Waters said some of the farmers who run the levee districts decide they could fix problems faster if they make the repairs themselves.

"If it's going to cost several hundred thousand to meet the specifications to be in compliance they may think it's cheaper to go it on their own," Waters said.